Gigs You Wish You'd Never Been At......

Although I've always liked Mr. Costello's music, I went to see him live at the Birmingham Odeon in the early to mid eighties.
What a load of crap, music was good but no "thank you" for the cheering fans after each song, no rapport or "chat" with the audience, no encore, feck all.
First time I'd ever been to an Odeon concert and managed to get the last bus home !!

Definitely the Who at the NEC around '89. I wouldn't've normally gone to such an event (I like small venues) but I got a free ticket, and a lift laid on. Well, I did have a nice kip lasting most of the event, so I guess that wasn't so bad. I've been to many bad gigs but that's fine. Par for the course, dissappear into the bar. This is the only one where I really wish I hadn't gone. I coulda gone to the pub instead.

Helmet at the Camden underworld. It wasn't a bad gig, but it was on the hottest day of the year. It was murder. I was just standing against the back wall, trying not to move. And I was completely drenched with sweat within minutes. Christ knows how anyone was able to keep pogoing through all that, they did tho'. They went on for ages, just relentless. It was sorta memorable however.

Hawkwind. I'm not interested in Hawkwind much, but if there's a band on..

The strobe light went on at the outset and I can't remember it ever stopping. I guess I'm a bit of a lightweight. Felt ill and collapsed against a pillar fairly soon after the start.

Was a big fan of Gary Numan when I was a poor teenager got a chance to see him in the early nineties was absolutely awful and he had recomposed a lot of his songs with some dodgy dance band who had a hit about washing your hair in the kitchen sink. So bad it is the only concert I have left before the end.

Saw the Chilli Peppers on the Blood Sugar Sex Magic tour they were pretty bad that night at the Royal Court in Liverpool played Crosstown Traffic as an encore unrecognisable.

I was at Hammersmith Odeon getting tickets for something else when Barclay James Harvest announced dates. Bought four on the strength of one song I'd heard years before and failed to spot the religious theme. I thought it was never going to end!

I never got the money off the three mates I went with even though one of them got to spend most of the gig talking to a gorgeous, half-naked, German journalist (they were big in Germany apparently... I wish they'd stayed there!)

Was staying at a beach-front hotel in Brighton a few years back for an Ice-Cream show! In the bar in the evening a Mystery "Special Guest" act was announced...about an hour later we got....Sid Little...without Eddy Large...
He put his heart and soul into entertaining the coach-load of blue-rinses that were in attendance so you can't fault him for that.

REM at Earls Court. I'm sure they would have been great if I'd stayed but the All London Tall Men's Society was having a meeting in front of me, so I bailed out to the pub.

Radiohead at South Park. Fell asleep during Supergrass, woke up in time for Humphrey Lyttleton and his jazz buffers, decided that I couldn't be bothered to wait for the 'head (I think they'd just farted out Kid A at that point) so went book shopping in Oxford instead.

Muse at Wolverhampton. They opened with three new tracks. If you didn't know those tracks already it was just a wall of sound. Got bored, went to bar.

The mate who was with me for all three gigs has since refused to ever go to a gig with me again.

Hawkwind 1985 Rock City Nottingham - Appalling
Suzanne Vega 1985 Manchester apollo - may as well have sat at home and put the record on
Charlie Haden, Paul Motian and Carla Bley Sheffield Leadmill 1990(ish) dull dull and more dull

Alien Sex Fiend at Edwards no 8, Birmingham. Can't remember the year (early 90s I think) but they were rubbish. Too many rubbish student bands, and also some terrible industrial bands whose names have faded into oblivion.

U2 Zooropa tour concert in Roundhay Park in the early 1990s - music OK, but I was so far away from the stage that I might as well have been playing the CD at home as I couldn't see them at all and there was absolutely no atmosphere. I was really disappointed as tickets for big names like that are not cheap, especially when you're a teenager. That's too-big outdoor venues for you though - total shyte. The support act, somekind of rap-influenced outfit, were totally dire as well.